January 27, 2010

On top of the box was a video screen that showed live images of whatever the camera was pointing at.

Initially,
the chimps were more interested in each other than the video
technology, as two male chimps within the study group vied to become
the alpha male, disrupting the experiment {yeah, because "Jersey Shore" was on. Who wants to watch that shit?-ed}.

But over time, some of the chimps learned how to select different videos to watch {ahhh..so they do know how to use a remote! Sneaky bastards-ed}.

For
example, the chimps could use a touchscreen to decide whether to watch
footage of their outside enclosure, or the food preparation room, where
zoo staff prepare the chimps' meals {but no pr0n. Fucking prudes-ed}.

The results still have to
be analysed in detail, but it seems the chimps did not prefer to watch
any of these images over the others {again. No pr0n. That's why-ed}.

Ms Herrelko is not sure
why, but it could be that the images shown were too familiar to the
chimps or because they have no way of asking to see something
different {yeah, when they can just play with themselves all day, screw each other with abandon, and drink their own urine, why the fucking fuckity fuck with a termite mound would they want to watch the shit that is on the tube? What were you fucking expecting them to watch? Masterfuckingpiece Theatre?-ed}

Oh, and I found the perfect commercial for the show. And it's just right for Alex:

January 25, 2010

Barack Obama Paving Way for Palin Presidency

Wow, when the super-libs are predicting a Palin Presidency 3 years out you know things have really gone off track for Obama.

Foreshadowing a Palin presidency is a perfect, gathering storm of economics, politics and tribalism, which is not to suggest that Obama is an innocent bystander in his reversal of fortune. It is certainly true that he inherited a capsized economy. But his administration has done little to right the ship. And no president can survive double-digit unemployment and 30,000 foreclosures a month for long.

...

A protracted stagnation will likely produce competing responses from voters in 2012, both of them bad for Obama. Polls show that African Americans continue to overwhelmingly support the president even though the unemployment rate for blacks is nearly twice the national average. That won’t change much, if at all, in the next three years. But will the laid–off African-American workers, who have exhausted their jobless benefits, turn out to vote in Gary, Ind., Detroit, Cleveland, Philly and Tampa with the same enthusiasm, and in the same numbers, as they did in 2008? Black New Yorkers certainly didn’t turn out last year for Bill Thompson, the African-American Democratic mayoral nominee, who lost narrowly to Michael Bloomberg, the Republican incumbent. Voter turnout was the city’s lowest in almost a century.

Conversely, while the economic climate is likely to leave the country’s most reliably liberal voting bloc demoralized and disengaged from an electoral process, this same dispossession has historically energized white, conservatives—particularly when cast in a racial hue. Consider the post-Reconstruction era, or the post-civil rights era, or even South Africa’s Afrikaners who responded to a fiscal crisis by electing the National Party which introduced apartheid in 1948. Today, you can see a populist, scattershot backlash, emerging in the form of the Republican-led “tea-bag” protests, South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson’s heckling of Obama and the rock-star sized crowds generated by Palin’s book tour.

Amazingly the author's solution to this "horrible" situation is to ignore the voters who have rejected the Dems in NJ, Virginia, and Massachusetts. His reasoning seems to be that if we spend enough money fast enough then everything will be OK and Palin can be relegated to the dustbin of history.

As the Massachusetts election demonstrates, the problem is not, as much of the media alleges, that Obama and the Democrats have overreached. They haven’t gone far enough. Scott Brown, the Republican candidate in last week’s Massachusetts election, tellingly, made health care “reform” the focus of his triumphant campaign, traveling the state in an old, GM pickup truck, arguing, quite accurately, that the Senate health care plan would cost Americans more money, not less. According to one exit poll, Obama voters who opted for the Republican candidate Scott Brown in Tuesday’s election, said, by a margin of 3-to-2, that the Senate health care proposal “doesn’t go far enough.” Eight of 10 voters in the state continue to want a public option.

A young Afghan teacher throws a rock at a soldier with note attached written in English, asking for school supplies so that he can teach his students. The Army, working with a New Zealand chaplain gathered up school supplies and clothes for the school. This bit stuck out to me,

Though the Soldiers didn't have the opportunity to hand out the
supplies personally, before leaving Camp Kiwi, they took time to talk
with the children who live in Bamyan. One teenager, 18-year-old
Qugamali, who also teaches English classes in Bamyan, said they are
learning in school about Japan and how the United States helped Japan
recover after World War II.

I'm glad this Afghan kid can make that kind of connection, I'm not sure a lot of American kids could make that connection. Be sure to read the whole thing. Shame the media ignores stories like this, not that I'm surprised by the media's conduct.

The dude isn't so much for the content of the article, which is faboo, but for who it is who wrote this.

I cannot believe the push back on how the Left treated Bush and on the historical narrative attempting to be set is beginning now. There's a cynical part of me that believes this is to clear the way for Obama being praised when he does the same thing. But still. It's good to see there being some attempts to bring sanity to this.

I'll admit, I never thought we would make it through Bush's terms without another major attack on American soil. I am grateful and humbled at the efforts that must have been made to make that so.

I'm glad to see this happening. I hope it doesn't go too far the other way but I'd rather have that than the vituperation.

cbullitt and Steamboat McGoo nominated the global warming blog Real Climate for Best Religious Blog in the 2009 Weblog Awards. Real Climate is of course a big hangout for climate scientists and Al Gore cultists. Well, after a lot of screeching, crying and butthurt, the people running the awards accepted Real Climate as a finalist for best religious blog...then a bit later decided to cancel the awards. Bastards. Funny shit from cbullitt and McGoo though.